The company of dogs versus people, sometimes it’s a quandary!

Boudicca & Russ

August 30, 2009

Joyce Kesling, CDBC

Today was an unusual Sunday, while sipping coffee daydreaming about life, a client called interrupting my thoughts; I finish, get the dogs out, fed, check email, and decide to attend a brunch with humans with little time to spare.  The always-unfortunate decision, which dog would accompany me; Darwin has maintained that privilege since deciding we needed more one-on-one time training and bonding.  There was little doubt this was necessary and it has paid off, but today the choice was Boudicca.  Honestly, she’s more fun!  Until we added Darwin, Boudicca went everywhere.

Darwin is so easy, almost too easy at times, I’d like to see him a tad bit more revved up, that’s something we’re working on.  He’s not into playing, he acts like he’s just going through the motions, it’s boring and it’s not that I don’t try.  So that’s why Boudicca made the call, she’s a player and I like mixing training with play.  Getting her into prey drive is like a duck taking to water; using the kill bite phase to get her jacked always works.  In distracting environments like Island Park where there are so many dog and other competing smells there are times when keeping her on task is challenging.  But once she gets into it, she’s pretty good at concentrating.

Boudicca kill bite to her ducky

So Darwin stayed home, he got a big phat Kong stuffed with kibble and topped off with peanut butter, nice and cool, right out of the freezer.  He can’t get in a kennel fast enough. 

Before making our way down to Island Park, brunch with the human friend was first on the agenda.  It’s amazing but this person actually does a really good job of keeping dogs out of the conversation.  We talked about the Kennedy funeral, did not watch a minute of, but it seemed we both read an article on his wife whom he married in 1992.  That article provided a glimpse into their relationship crediting her for changing his life, that bit of information provided a slightly better spin on him.  I was not a big Kennedy fan and I certainly have not forgotten Mary Jo Kopechne, and 1969 was an impressionable year and being a woman, not something easy to forget.  But so it seems people make mistakes, sometimes very serious ones and we being a rather forgiving species like to forgive and forget…sometimes!  Unfortunately, the idea of forgiving and forgetting is a very selective decision. 

The current healthcare debate was our other big topic with little disagreement on some key issues, I won’t bore you with the details, I’m confident eventually our congress will make the right choice, I just hope I’m included!

As we were parting ways, I practically had to drag him over to meet Boudicca who patiently waited in her luxurious car seat in the shade, he didn’t even show any interest in petting her, he’s really not into dogs!  Hard to imagine.  We said good-bye and we were finally off to Island Park for fun and training. 

We biked in, but skipped doing laps, it’s so freakin hot and humid, I didn’t want to completely wear her down, that is possible with a Jack Russell especially if you’ve worked on teaching impulse control and calmer behavior as opposed to being jacked up continually. 

Boudicca & Sabrina

We practiced heeling dragging a long line for safety reasons, and walked toward the fountain.  It’s a beautiful fountain, with dolphin sculptures, but we like to use it for practicing vertical jumps.  This time Boudicca showed some interest in the next ledge and up and into the fountain she went, seeing her surprise and little panic when she realized she was in a body of water!  Luckily, I was able to gently pull the line until she got her feet up on the ledge.  She recovered quickly and cooled off.  I checked later to see if I could get up on the fountain ledge,  I easily can, so we may be visiting the fountain more often for a swim, perhaps until someone reports us and/or the bicycle cops show up and give us a “warning.”  Actually, I’ve always gotten along well with them, like any responsible person, it’s an appreciable effort seeing dogs with great owners who actually train their dogs.

This was truly a funny event, during the week; I had lunch at Marina Jacks with another human friend and was able to visually see from the restaurant over to that section of the park.  I had no idea how clearly one can be seen!  That day, a frequent visitor was there with his porti, he was cuing his dog up onto the fountain, and his dog was doing laps in the fountain.  I was jealous, it was  too funny. 

After cooling off in the fountain, it was back to training, then Frisbee!  I keep telling everyone, Boudicca’s developing Frisbee talent is only as good as my throw, sometimes it’s like a golf swing, pulling it to the right or pushing it off to the left, sometimes it flies high, sometimes low.  We use football terminology to communicate various catching techniques, sometimes I think she’s trapped it, but without “instant replay” who can be sure, she’s not going to tell me.  Then there are those times when she breaks the huddle and takes off before the Frisbee is snapped, of course she has no idea in what direction my throw is going, hell I don’t.  Football players are guilty of this too; they get their signals mixed up.  The receiver is supposed to go down and out to the left; instead, he heads across the middle, sometimes if your defense in on the field the receiver gets “jacked” by a big linebacker and the crowd goes wild.  Sometimes she misses it because she’s not maintaining concentration, this happens when a receiver looks off the ball rather than keeping it in his sights.  Sometimes blamed on hearing a defensive player coming up on them, I regress; after all, it is football season.  But, this is how I see Frisbee, the throwing part reminds me of a golf swing, and the receiving part reminds me of a football receiver going out for a pass.  I guess the only way to find out for sure is talk to a professional Frisbee trainer, but that’s not likely, I don’t know any and think we’re doing just fine.  Boudicca becoming a national Frisbee dog is not part of my agenda, it’s fun and Boudicca seems to love it. 

Boudicca killing her ducky

 

So all in all, the brunch was good, the human communication consisted of topics different from dogs, but for some reason, I don’t meet (any) people around here that seem to have the same understanding or interest in dogs, making it difficult to really discuss serious training and behavior issues in person, except on very superficial levels.  That seems unsatisfying to me, I’d like nothing better than being surrounded by some seriously intelligent dog people who might actually be able to teach me something.  Don’t get me wrong, I have a wonderful veterinarian specializing in dog behavior to communicate with, but it’s not the same as one-on-one communication and training, just as I alluded to earlier suggesting as necessary working with Darwin.

We experience many dog days and anecdotal experiences that one could easily write about dogs, but these experiences are vividly stored inside my brain to draw from when needed, often-used helping clients.  It takes more time to write some essays, but if they help change one person and help one dog because a factual piece of information was imparted rather than some myth handed down about dogs or standard recipe served up to fix behavior and/or training problems, then I will be a very happy person.   

Responsible Dog and Cat

Training and Behavior Solutions

Combining Art and Science for Training Animals

Joyce D. Kesling, CDBC

P.O. Box 15992

Sarasota, Florida 34277

941-966-1188

 

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The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.  Mahatma Gandhi 1869 – 1948

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